Sunday Bazaar catches fire, shopkeepers lose items worth millions

A massive fire broke out at a Sunday Bazaar on Wednesday with the huge flames destroying over a 100 stalls, causing loss of millions of rupees.

After a gruelling two hours of effort, hundreds of fire fighters managed to extinguish the fire, that had erupted in section E of the bazaar at stalls of clothes, curtains and others garments. It is pertinent to mention that last year too, a massive fire took place in the area, destroying over 500 stalls.

Fortunately, no loss of life was reported.

It is yet to be ascertained how the fire broke out but the city managers have constituted a committee under the supervision of Capital Development Authority (CDA) security director and municipal administration director, which will submit the report today (Thursday) to find out the exact reason why the fire broke out, find a compensation for the loss of shopkeepers and to suggest the way forward.

“We have formed a committee, which will submit its report within 24 hours,” the chief metropolitan officer told this correspondent.

Around two dozen fire brigade vehicles took part in the operation, which were also assisted by the Navy and Bahria Town’s fire tenders.

Although the exact reason and source remains unknown, it has been assumed so far that the fire might be a result of short circuiting in the UPS battery.

Meanwhile, stall holders staged a protest demonstration in the premises of the bazaar stating that there could be malafide attention behind the incident of two massive fire incidents in a year. They said that it the failure of security officials of the bazaars.

“Our businesses have been destroyed. It’s a loss of millions and billions of rupees. We have to unite to get compensation form the government,” a stall holder, Faisal said while talking exclusively to Daily Times.

He said that stall holders have been regularly paying the security guards, but the security officials remain unsuccessful in preventing such serious incidents.